Impression Formation Process Research Articles

Do first impressions matter? The effect of first impressions on the assessment of the quality of simultaneous interpreting

The aim of this study is to gauge the opinion of potential users of simultaneous interpretation (SI) services as to the impact of first impressions (FI) on their assessment of the quality of SI, and the grounds on which these impressions are based. The investigation had two parts. The first part aims at testing if the opinions formed by users about an interpreter during the first listen affect their final assessment of his/her work and if there are a number of specific criteria which to a greater or lesser extent help to form these opinions. The second part focuses on making a vertical analysis of FI by assessing the relative importance that the users give a priori to the different aspects that help to form these impressions within the field of interpreting. A high proportion of the sample population acknowledged that they had formed a first impression of the interpreters they had listened to and accepted that it had influenced their assessment. They also stated that nonverbal aspects were responsible for these impressions. The vertical analysis has shown that in different situations users adopt different approaches when assessing the relative importance of a range of criteria in impression formation processes.

Honesty and Dishonesty Don’t Move Together: Trait Content Information Influences Behavioral Synchrony

Emerging evidence revealed that honesty and trustworthiness are important drivers of the impression-formation process. Questions remain, however, regarding the role of these moral attributes in guiding real and concrete behaviors. Filling this gap, the present study investigated the influence of honesty on a nonverbal behavior that regulates social interactions: behavioral synchrony. Movements were recorded while participants interacted with a partner who was depicted as honest (versus dishonest) or as friendly (versus unfriendly). Results showed that synchrony was affected only by the honesty of the partner. Specifically, the more the interaction partner lacked honesty, the lower the perceived similarity between the self and the interaction partner, which in turn diminished the promptness to engage in behavioral synchrony. Our findings connected the literature on behavioral synchrony with that on the implication of morality for social perception, revealing the key role of the honesty facet of moral character in shaping nonverbal behaviors.

When expectancies harm comprehension: Encoding flexibility in impression formation

We explored the possibility that the encoding flexibility processes postulated by Sherman and colleagues (1998) may also apply to intentional impression formation settings, even when cognitive resources are available to conceptually encode all of the behavioral information regardless of the relation of that information to the initial stereotypical expectancies. Three experiments offer evidence for the lower conceptual fluency for expectancy-incongruent behaviors, compared with congruent behaviors, as well as for the consequences of that difference for impression formation. Experiment 1 shows that incongruent behaviors are perceived as more difficult to understand in meaning. Experiment 2 links this lower conceptual fluency with a better discrimination of the specific trait implications of the behaviors. We further explore the role of conceptual encoding difficulty for developing personality impressions (Experiment 3). These studies reveal the implications of initial expectancies for the differential conceptual encoding of congruent and incongruent behaviors, even when the availability of cognitive resources is high, such as when forming an intentional impression about a person's personality. The link between this process and encoding the trait implications of behaviors may shed new light on impression formation processes and demand a revision of some of the assumptions that were made by the classical person memory model. We contend that behavior encoding in impression formation is likely to begin with default trait encoding but will be inhibited when the implications of the behavior conflict with previous trait expectancies (see also Wigboldus, Dijksterhuis, & van Knippenberg, 2003).

Hedonic evaluation can be automatically performed: An electroencephalography study of website impression across two cultures

The study of cognitive processes underlying Internet users’ fast impression formation is important to understand how people behave in an information-overloaded environment. Here we study how Internet users form fast website impression by investigating which evaluative dimension, i.e., usefulness and enjoyment, is automatically activated when people are required to rapidly evaluate website logos. To capture the transient processes in website impression formation, we have applied dense-array (128 and 256 channels) electroencephalography (EEG) to conduct experiments in two cultures (USA and Taiwan). The results of the EEG analysis showed that usefulness and enjoyment evaluations were consistently performed quickly (450–800ms) in both cultural groups. More importantly, the results showed that enjoyment evaluation could be automatically performed. No clear evidence was found that usefulness evaluation was performed when usefulness evaluation goal was irrelevant. The finding suggests that people can form rapid website impression, and enjoyment is a critical component in the impression formation process.

Thinking About Other People

Three experiments examined whether people spontaneously generate evaluations of target individuals under circumstances in which they are also known to generate spontaneous trait inferences (STIs). The first experiment used a standard savings-in-relearning paradigm to explore whether exposure to trait-implicative behavior descriptions facilitates the learning of evaluatively-congruent, as well as behavior-implied, personality traits. Evidence for the facilitated learning of evaluatively-congruent traits was not obtained. This led to a second experiment in which the savings-in-relearning paradigm was altered to directly assess participants’ relearning of evaluative words (good/bad). The results demonstrated that the same trait-implicative behavioral stimuli can produce both spontaneous trait inferences and spontaneous evaluations when both are measured correctly. Both of these outcomes were replicated in a third study using a false recognition paradigm. The implications of these findings for impression formation processes and for the possible independence of semantic information and evaluative information are discussed.

Perceptions of Moral Violations and Personality Traits Among Heroes and Villains

This study investigates disposition-formation processes in entertainment by predicting perceptions of media heroes and villains by their behavior in specific moral domains. Participants rated self-selected heroes and villains from television and film along the moral domains of care, fairness, loyalty, authority, and purity (Haidt & Joseph, 2007) as well as along dimensions of warmth, competence, and duplicity used in impression-formation research (Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, & Xu, 2002). Results show that heroes violate moral norms in domains of authority and purity, whereas villains violated moral norms in the domains of caring and group loyalty. Furthermore, these moral violations are associated with personality dimensions of warmth and competence differently for each character type, such that impressions of heroes are driven by their work in the care domain (i.e., saving or protecting people), whereas for villains, violation of purity norms is most strongly associated with subsequent impression formation processes.

Tentativa de resolução da aparente discrepância entre o efeito de incongruência e as correlações ilusórias baseadas nas expectativas

Dois dos mais robustos efeitos da Cognição Social, o efeito de incongruência e as correlações ilusórias baseadas nas expectativas, são aparentemente incompatíveis. Esta incompatibilidade torna-se mais aguda se for levada em consideração a similitude entre os ocntextos experimentais em que, tipicamente, se encontram ambos os efeitos. Não tem existido contudo senão um pequeno nuúmero de tentativas conceptuais d3e resolução deste aparente paradoxo. Epior, mesmo essas tentativas não produziram nem um desejável enquadramento global, nem foram capazes de abarcar completamente os dados disponíveis. O autor apresenta um novo enquadramento teórico, o modelo «Generalização de Hastie-Srull» (GHS), que representa um esforço de ultrapassar esta situação. Um novo paradigma experimenatl que combina as características típicas dos dois paradigmas experimentais originais, é também apresentado, concomitantemente com os resultados dos primeiros estudos que o utilizaram- Os resultados, mostrando uma forte dissociação entre a evocação livre e a estimação da frequência da informação incongruente com as expectativas, fornecem fortes razões para a dissolução do paradoxo referido. São igualmente discutidas as implicações mais latas destes estudos para a compreensão dos processos de formação de impressões.

Tablet as human: How intensity and stability of the user-tablet relationship influences users’ impression formation of tablet computers

When can computers seem “human”? How do users form identity impressions of computers? In an examination of the ways in which users form impressions of their tablet computers, this study offers a new perspective by allowing users to verbalize their impressions of their products. Findings from in-depth interviews revealed two basic constructs that inform users’ impression formation – intensity and stability, which respectively foster social-contextualization and attribute association processes. This study contributes to impression formation and human–computer relationship literature in two aspects. The first is a novel methodological design that was humanistic in nature but was informed by social psychology; the second is a new construct “relationship intensity,” which operates jointly with relationship stability in impression formation processes.

Peer impressions in open source organizations: A survey

In virtual organizations, such as Open Source Software (OSS) communities, we expect that the impressions members have about each other play an important role in fostering effective collaboration. However, there is little empirical evidence about how peer impressions form and change in virtual organizations. This paper reports the results from a survey designed to understand the peer impression formation process among OSS participants in terms of perceived expertise, trustworthiness, productivity, experiences collaborating, and other factors that make collaboration easy or difficult. While the majority of survey respondents reported positive experiences, a non-trivial fraction had negative experiences. In particular, volunteer participants were more likely to report negative experiences than participants who were paid. The results showed that factors related to a person's project contribution (e.g., quality and understandability of committed codes, important design related decisions, and critical fixes made) were more important than factors related to work style or personal traits. Although OSS participants are very task focused, the respondents believed that meeting their peers in person is beneficial for forming peer impressions. Having an appropriate impression of one's OSS peers is crucial, but the impression formation process is complicated and different from the process in traditional organizations.

Personality Expression and Impression Formation in Online Social Networks: An Integrative Approach to Understanding the Processes of Accuracy, Impression Management and Meta–Accuracy

In this paper, we investigate personality expression and impression formation processes in online social networks (OSNs). We explore whether, when and why people accurately judge others’ personalities (accuracy), successfully manage the impressions that others form of them (impression management) and accurately infer others’ impressions of them (meta–accuracy) at zero acquaintance. On the basis of targets’ OSN profiles (N = 103), overall perceiver impressions were collected and compared with targets’ self–view, desired impression and meta–perception. In addition, independent groups of thin–slice perceivers based their personality impressions solely on one of four kinds of information within the OSN profiles (profile picture, interests field, group list and notice board), and more than 300 OSN cues (e.g. attractive person and number of friends) were coded. Results showed evidence of accuracy, impression management and meta–accuracy, but their extent was moderated by the trait (e.g. Big Five and self–esteem), the kind of information and the interplay of trait and information. Findings could be explained by cue expression and cue utilization processes (lens model analyses). Future prospects for studying personality impressions in online and offline environments are discussed. Copyright © 2013 European Association of Personality Psychology.

Unmixed signals: How reputation and status affect alliance formation

We analyze how incumbents in technology-driven industries are influenced by founders' reputation and status when considering strategic alliances with newly emerging firms. We theorize that reputation and status represent two distinct components of perceived quality that exert independent and interdependent effects on alliance formation. Using literature on impression formation processes to derive predictions of signal congruence, we argue that the independent effects of reputation and status are amplified when the two are congruent, and that the effect of negative congruence (both reputation and status are low) is stronger than positive congruence (both are high). We find support for our arguments based on panel data on alliances between pharma and biotech firms, using data on biotech scientists' research output (reputation) and university attended (status). Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The effects of product photographs and reputation systems on consumer behavior and product cost on eBay

For years, computer-mediated communication (CMC) research has explored and theorized about the effects of technology on the process of interpersonal impression formation. However, as the Internet has evolved to allow users to accomplish more and more day-to-day tasks (e. g., the buying and selling of goods and services) little research and theory development has explored how non-interpersonal impressions form on the internet. This work seeks to extend theoretical perspectives on online signaling (the warranting effect; Walther & Parks, 2002) to predict consumer behavior on the popular online auction website, eBay.com. A content analysis of 217 completed eBay auctions revealed that auctions that featured higher seller reputation scores and actual product photographs (vs. stock photographs) generated more bidding interest and resulted in higher final sales prices. These findings as well as future theoretical development in this area are discussed.

Controversies, Questions, and Prospects for Spontaneous Social Inferences

AbstractThree decades of research on spontaneous social inferences, particularly traits, have settled some questions and generated more. We describe that research in terms of these controversies and questions. If you think you know the story, read on because it continues to surprise all of us. It deals with such broader issues as automatic and controlled processing, the nature of meaning, causality, stages of forming inferences about others, the role of consciousness, and differences between implicit and explicit impressions. Evidence on neurological substrate is growing. Spontaneous inferences continue to be a useful tool for illuminating impression formation processes.

Long-term study for the impression-formation processes from real person.

Long-term study for the impression-formation processes from real person.

Moderators of the self-congruity effect on consumer decision-making: A meta-analysis

Value-expressive brands’ success stem largely from self-congruity between their brand personalities and targeted consumers’ self-concepts (Aaker, 1997). Over 100 conceptual and empirical articles highlight self-congruity's effect on consumer decision-making. The following meta-analysis identifies key theoretical and managerial issues of the self-congruity effect. Study results reinforce the self-congruity effect's robustness (r=.31). Moderation analysis sheds theoretical insights about self-congruity's motivational and cognitive underpinnings. The findings suggest self-congruity effects are a function of underlying self-motive “socialness,” degree of self-enhancement sought, the brand personality facet, the judgment object's abstraction level, cognitive elaboration, and the underlying impression formation process. These findings generate methodological and theoretical recommendations for future self-congruity research, as well as recommendations for marketing practitioners.

You want to give a good impression? Be honest! Moral traits dominate group impression formation

Research has shown that warmth and competence are core dimensions on which perceivers judge others and that warmth has a primary role at various phases of impression formation. Three studies explored whether the two components of warmth (i.e., sociability and morality) have distinct roles in predicting the global impression of social groups. In Study 1 (N= 105) and Study 2 (N= 112), participants read an immigration scenario depicting an unfamiliar social group in terms of high (vs. low) morality, sociability, and competence. In both studies, participants were asked to report their global impression of the group. Results showed that global evaluations were better predicted by morality than by sociability or competence-trait ascriptions. Study 3 (N= 86) further showed that the effect of moral traits on group global evaluations was mediated by the perception of threat. The importance of these findings for the impression-formation process is discussed.

The effect of video feedback delay on frustration and emotion communication accuracy

Previous research has demonstrated that for unacquainted dyads and groups interacting over video, feedback delay can interfere with the impression-formation process and increase cognitive load, in turn leading to incorrect interpersonal judgments. In this study, 35 dyads participated in two 10-min conversation periods over video monitors. In one period there was a 1-s delay in the audio/video signal and in the other there was no delay. In period 1 the presence of feedback delay was associated with decreased frustration and increased ability to accurately judge a partner’s emotions. In period 2, however, feedback delay was associated with increased frustration and had no effect on emotion communication accuracy, which was decreased in both conditions by inaccurate assumed similarity. Results supported and expanded the relation-alignment perspective, which states that individuals will consciously attempt to manage their impressions over technological channels, but that they can also be unconsciously influenced by technological distortion.

A Model of Language-Based Impression Formation and Attribution Among Germans

Research on the English and the Japanese languages has shown that impression formation and attribution processes can be modeled as stemming from a desire to maximize affective coherence in linguistic representations of social events. This article describes a replication in the German language, simultaneously uncovering subtle cultural distinctions. Subjects ( N = 1,905) rated 376 nouns, 393 verbs, 331 adjectives, 128 combinations of nouns and adjectives, and 100 short descriptions of social interaction on the three dimensions of the semantic differential (evaluation, potency, and activity). The data were used to estimate a set of regression equations that can be used to model impression formation and attribution. Sample applications of the model demonstrate its ability to predict the outcome of textbook classics in experimental social psychology.

Translating subjective language in letters of recommendation: the case of the sexist professor

AbstractLetters of recommendation typically use subjective language that is open to interpretation. In three studies, participants “translated” letters of recommendation for female and male applicants written by sexist, anti‐sexist, or “control” professors. Predictions were based on the shifting standards model [Biernat, Manis, & Nelson, 1991], the attributional principle of augmentation [Kelley, 1971, and models of “correction” for contamination [e.g., Wilson & Brekke, 1994]. Participants translated equivalent letters as indicating lesser ability in female than male applicants, particularly when the letter writer was described as sexist, but own impressions of the candidate diverged from those of the sexist writer. Differential standard use and attributional augmentation did not appear to be responsible for these effects. Instead, writer sexism triggered dislike and corrective processes in impression formation. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Explicit Persuasive Intent and Its Impact on Success at Persuasion—The Determining Roles of Attractiveness and Likeableness

The effect on the impact of a message of explicitly stating a desire to persuade can depend on the communicator's physical attractiveness. Experiment 1 confirmed this possibility. Attractive male and female salespersons induced more positive attitudes and stronger intentions to purchase a product when they explicitly stated their desire to influence potential buyers. In contrast, unattractive salespersons were less likely to induce a favorable attitude toward the product under these conditions. Experiment 2 replicated these effects and provided evidence that they are mediated by the attribution of self‐serving motives to the salesperson. A 2‐step process of impression formation and attribution was used to describe the mechanisms underlying these effects.